testing By Cathy-Dee

In September I test on letter names and sounds. I have a form made up with all the letters on it both in upper and lower case. The letters are not in any particular order. I use two colours of pen. I first test letter names and circle for example in blue all names not known. I then test letter sounds and circle all sounds not known in red.

I retest in mid-November for report cards.

Students who know 95% of the letter names and sounds I only spot check on the ones they missed on the last test.

For sight words I do various tests.

For colour words - I have a sheet with all the colour words on it (as crayons). I have the students colour the crayons what they think they should be according to the colour words. I supply the crayons as I take off the wrapper as the brighter students know the words are on the wrapper.

For basic sight words I have a form - the words are in one column and there is a blank space in the next column (looking much like a grid with boxes).

I tell the students to put the letter A beside the word (the). Put the letter B beside the word (can), etc.,

Most of the students can handle this type of test. Those who couldn't handle the test (either because they do not know the words or because they do not know their letters) I retest later one on one.

At least twice per year I also like to test the students one on one on the dolch words. Because there are so many words in the dolch lists - I often do this over several weeks and only do one page of words at a time with a student.

This is where a parent helper or a TA can really help out.

I test during my center times - I plan for specific center times to do one on one testing. I can usually do most tests within a week for all students.